DIY Christmas Hand Soap [Free Candy Cane Labels]

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When making this Christmas soap as a gift for someone, don’t forget to make some for yourself too. Candy cane soap can be a fun addition to your home’s holiday atmosphere. 

INGREDIENTS NEEDED FOR THE RECIPE

CASTILE SOAP

Castile soap is a vegetable-based soap. It is free of animal fats or synthetic ingredients and is fully natural, nontoxic and environmentally friendly.

Castile soap is a great option for those with sensitive skin. It is made from simple natural ingredients, so it is less likely that someone will experience sensitivity or an allergic reaction.

 

Want to make a foaming hand soap?

 

Just like most natural soaps, Castile soap too foams less than commercial soaps. You will get the lather, but it will not be as big and fluffy as what you might be used to. If you like foam, use the foam pump bottles for soap rather than the traditional soap dispensers. 

 

DISTILLED WATER

Distilled water is water that has gone through the process of distillation to remove impurities. This is the type of water you should use when making skincare products. 

Distilled water is very cheap and is available in Walmart and many other stores. You can also get it online.

 

TABLE SALT

This may surprise you, but table salt works really well for thickening liquid soap. I’ve thickened my homemade soap with it many times and it worked like a charm each time. Plain table salt works best.

 

FRAGRANCE OR ESSENTIAL OILS

To make your Christmas hand soap smell like candy cane, you will need to add essential oils or fragrance. You can either buy a ready-made Candy Cane fragrance or essential oil blend, or mix it yourself. Here are some options:

– Candy Cane fragrance (what I used)

– Candy Cane essential oil blend

– Mixing 3 parts of Peppermint essential oil or fragrance with 2 parts of Vanilla essential oil or fragrance

 

CANDY CANE HAND SOAP RECIPE

– 200 ml of liquid Castile soap

– 200 ml of distilled water  + 30-50 ml to make salt solution

– 25-30 drops of Candy Cane fragrance (or Candy Cane essential oil blend) 

– 2-5 drops of soap dye (optional)

– soap dispensers or foam soap dispenser

Yield: 2 x 200 ml bottles of liquid soap

Candy Cane Hand Soap

Print

Surprise your family and friends with a homemade candy cane scented hand soap. Candy cane soap is easy to make and comes with cute printable labels. It makes a great gift for Christmas.

Active Time 20 minutes

Total Time 20 minutes

Difficulty Easy

Materials

• 200 ml of liquid Castile soap
• 200 ml of distilled water
• 25-30 drops of Candy Cane fragrance (or Candy Cane essential oil blend)
• 2-5 drops of red soap dye (optional)

Tools

• Soap dispenser

Instructions

1. Fill up a heat resistant measuring cup or a jar with 200 ml of distilled water and microwave for about 60 seconds. The water should be anywhere between warm and hot, but not boiling. Heating up distilled water will help with mixing in castile soap and table salt. Then add 200 ml of liquid castile soap and mix well.
2. Add your fragrance or essential oils and mix.
3. Prepare a salt solution by dissolving 10 g of salt in 30 g of distilled water. 
4. Start adding salt solution to your soap a little bit at a time and mix. This is to thicken the soap. If your salt solution solidifies inside the soap and doesn't mix, it means you need to warm up your soap. When judging the thickens of the soap, have in mind that the soap will solidify a little bit more once it cools down.
5. Once you are happy with the thickness of your liquid hand soap, you can go ahead and fill out your soap dispenser.
6. To make the red version of Candy Cane soap, add 2 drops of soap dye and mix. Keep adding dye one drop at the time until you like the final color.
7. Then fill out your soap dispenser.
8. Last step is to decorate your soap bottles with Candy Cane soap labels.

FREE PRINTABLE CANDY CANE LABELS

Finish your Christmas soap project with printable Candy Cane labels. You can download the soap labels here:

CANDY CANE HAND SOAP LABELS.PDF

Because you will touch your soap bottle with wet hands, you need to waterproof your labels.

Option 1: Download the labels, take them to your local office supply store and ask to print on a waterproof adhesive paper.

Option 2: Print it on a regular adhesive paper sheet (I used them for almost all my labels), cover the labels with transparent adhesive tape and then cut them out. Stick them onto your soap bottles as normal.